October 27, 1974 - Young and Old win Cardinal 500

This post will be a "Sgt. Joe Friday" one by me: Just the facts ma'am. I'm hoping Dave Fulton and others can fill in more details.

I've never been to Martinsville - though I'd like to. While I grew up watching many of the Late Model Sportsman drivers come through Nashville occasionally, I didn't see all the greats including Ray Hendrick. And modifieds? Barely heard of them down here. I was aware of guys like Richie Evans and Jerry Cook, but we didn't get any coverage in The Tennesseean. My multi-year subscription to Southern MotoRacing in my teens and 20s helped educate me a bit more on those distant LMS guys, the modified drivers and their marquis events such as the Cardinal 500 at Martinsville.

Forty years ago today, the teams from the two ranks visited Martinsville's half-mile for the 1974 fall classic held on October 27th.

Conventional wisdom held that the 250-lap modified race would be a duel between Evans and Cook. From the start though, both drivers and the rest of the field would have to get by pole winner Geoff Bodine. - Tom Knox

In the late model sportsman side of the bill, Virginian & multi-time Martinsville winner Ray Hendrick was top dog on qualifying day. - Spartanburg Herald

The starting line-ups for the 2 races.

Bugs Stevens modified - Tom Knox

Drivers from the two races lined up 4-wide for pre-race ceremonies. That had to have have been a sight to behold.

Jimmy Griffin (12), Jack Bland (41), Dave Mader III (8), Jack Ingram (11), - Tom Knox

Gene Glover (10), Tiny Lund (22), Ray Hendrick (1 modified), Roy Hendrick (33) - Tom Knox

Ray Hendrick rolling off for the start in the modified first-half of the 500. - Tom Knox

When the dust settled on the modified race, neither Evans or Cook were in victory lane. Neither was pole-winner Bodine or the ol' vet Hendrick. Instead, the young'un from Fitchburg, Massachusetts - Ron Bouchard - took the checkers. The result was a bit more predictable in the LMS race as Ray Hendrick won yet another Martinsville event.

Bouchard and Hendrick posed their duo photo-op with Martinsville's traditional grandfather clock "trophy". - Getty

Race report - Spartanburg Herald

Top 10 finishers in LMS race. I have not yet found a complete finishing order for either race.

Great job Chase!

David Allio has a nice photo of Ray Hendrick chasing down Harry Gant in the LMS portion of the 1974 Cardinal 500.

http://www.racingphotoarchives.com/classic/2014/10/27/martinsville-1974-ray-hendrick-harry-gant-cardinal-500/

And Jim Donnelly posted a couple of photos from the race including Harold Fountain in the 00 and Ray Hendrick in the Thomas Bros Hams 14.

http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/2007/12/01/hmn_feature9.html

Nice add with the 2nd round qualifying report!

Thanks, Chase. For the life of me I can't recall if I was at this race or not. I was living in Wilson, NC at the time, drove from there to Martinsville a number of times and saw many of Ray's Martinsville wins.... but this one I'm thinking not.

7th place finisher in the LMS race was winner, Ray Hendrick's son, Roy Hendrick , who drove the the red & blue #33 STPish looking Chevelle fielded by "Blue" Burton of Mechanicsville, Virginia pictured in one of the photos above.

2nd place LMS finisher was the same Reds Kagle of Maryland who lost a leg in the 1961 World 600 crash below:

Couple of pretty good pieces of trivia tweeted by Chocolate Myers today. Apparently Choc got sideways with someone a bit during qualifying. He got a written warning and the oft-awarded "probation" but no additional penalty for his conduct. Coincidentally, Bobby Myers got docked with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty 20 years earlier - also at Martinsville.

Seeing Harry Gant entered in both the Late Model Sportsman and Modified portions of this 1977 Martinsville event reminds me of something I had forgotten. Even though Harry ran just a handful of modified races, in 1977 his racing peers voted him Most Popular Driver in both the NASCAR Modified Division and the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Division - the first and ONLY time a driver was named Most Popular in multiple NASCAR divisions in the same year.

From June 9, 1978 Asheville Citizen-Times:

Harry Gant ran hard in the Late Model Sportsman and Modified divisions of NASCAR in 1977, and the fans rewarded him by naming Gant as their choice for the Most Popular Driver in both divisions. Gant of Taylorsville competed in 83 NASCAR events, 68 Sportsman races and 15 Modified runs. He posted 12 wins (10 Sportsman and two Modified) and his schedule was unbelievable, sometimes competing in four races in three days. The fans obviously appreciated his efforts because the only other driver to win the Most Popular award in two divisions in the same year was Bobby Allison (1973).

And from December 21, 1973 Hagerstown MD Morning Herald:

Bobby Allison, Ray Elder, Red Farmer and Richie Evans have been selected NASCAR's most popular drivers in their respective divisions by a vote of the NASCAR membership. Allison became the first man ever to be selected for two divisions the same year. The Hueytown, Ala. star was voted most popular in the Grand National and Grand National East divisions. Like Allison, Elder is a multiple winner of the most popular award. This is the sixth time that the four-time Grand National West champion has been voted the honor. Farmer is a three-time late model sportsman national champion but in 1973 he curtailed his traveling somewhat, doing most of his racing near his Alabama home. Farmer has said many times the most popular award means more to him than the championship. This is the fourth time for him to receive it. Richie Evans is the only one selected who has not won the award before. He is the new national modified champion winning a close three-way battle over former champions Bugs Stevens and Jerry Cook.

Good news clips, Chase. Learned someting with the revelation Bobby scored two MPD awards in 1973.

Chase,

Seeing the probation letter you posted from Lin Kuchler to Chocolate Myers following a 1974 Martinsville "incident" brought back memories of one of the nicest and finest guys I ever met in motorsports. Lin Kuchler was a soft spoken and brilliant motorsports executive, much in demand by major sanctioning bodies. Big Bill France hired Lin away from the American Motorcyclist Association for NASCAR, where he worked as a highly respected executive for a number of years before returning to the AMA - his first love being motorcycles. You can see by his handling of the Myers incident that Lin was pretty thoughtful and a guy who respected the racers and crews.

In November 1981, it was my pleasure to be seated next to Lin at the annual American Motorcyclist Association Awards banquet on a Sunday night at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. I was absolutely dead tired. I had driven straight from the Riverside stock car race and had a 7:00 a.m. Monday morning plane flight from LAX to Greensboro, NC. I barely had time to shower and shave and put on a business suit before the banquet began.

Lin made my efforts worthwhile. He was hilarious and took great pleasure in introducing me to the motorcycle crowd. The only thing I had ever ridden on two wheels was a bicycle.

Seated at our table was Dale Singleton, the "Racing Pig Farmer" from Georgia. Dale was a multi-time winner of the Daytona 200 motorcycle race. Under the banquet table, Dale had a wee piglet in a container. It was a genuinely fun evening, even if I was bone dead tired.

Dale Singleton in 1984 and 1985 wanted to try his hand in stock cars and Dale Earnhardt championed his cause. Unfortunately, before he could make his mark, Dale Singleton lost his life along with Richie Panch when their small aircraft broke apart in a storm leaving Darlington.

Lin started the American Motorcycle Heritage foundation in Hendersonville, Tennessee to raise money for the AMA Hall of Fame.

Lin Kuchler passed in 2011 at the age of 94. He had already been elected himself to the American Motorcyclist Association Hall of Fame.